The British Prime Minister proposes opening up and selling the health information of British citizens, ie copying the US model of data sales because he sees it’s worth tens-hundreds of billions in annual revenue to those in the US selling data. For at least the past decade, US industry has been violating Americans’ expectations and strong rights to health privacy by selling and using sensitive patient health information without consent, and without public awareness, much less, debate.

Prime Minister “[Cameron] sees no limit on the involvement of the private sector and says he wants it to be a ‘fantastic business’. In his desperation to develop a credible industrial strategy, he seems willing to put large chunks of our NHS up for sale.”

Roger Gross, from the pressure group Patient Concern, said that allowing private firms access to NHS data would mean “the death of patient confidentiality”.

“We understand GP surgeries will have the right to refuse to release their patients’ records, but whether patients will ever be told what is happening, let alone have the choice to protect their privacy, is still unclear,” Gross said.

It will be interesting to see which one the UK chooses. Microsoft joined the bipartisan Coalition for Patient Privacy to urge Congress to restore consumer control over PHI in 2007. Google has not.

MS signed Coalition letters in 2007 and 2009, and agreed to support the Coalition’s tough privacy principles and health privacy rights in electronic systems. HealthVault was built to adhere to the Coalition’s stringent privacy principles. Open, public promises by major corporations are taken very seriously by federal regulatory agencies and consumer advocates.

The promises by the technology corporations that joined the Coalition are a rebuke to other HIT vendors and the data mining industry that will do anything to get their hands on PHI for all sorts of uses that patients would never agree to.

Today, the clearest sign of serious corporate commitment to health privacy rights is joining the Coalition for Patient Privacy and standing with consumers to build an ethical, legal HIT system—the only kind that will be trusted and succeed.

It will be interesting to see which one the UK chooses. Microsoft joined the bipartisan Coalition for Patient Privacy to urge Congress to restore consumer control over PHI in 2007. Google has not.
MS signed Coalition letters in 2007 and 2009, and agreed to support the Coalition’s tough privacy principles and health privacy rights in electronic systems. HealthVault was built to adhere to the Coalition’s stringent privacy principles. Open, public promises by major corporations are taken very seriously by federal regulatory agencies and consumer advocates.

The promises by the technology corporations that joined the Coalition are a rebuke to other HIT vendors and the data mining industry that will do anything to get their hands on PHI for all sorts of uses that patients would never agree to.

Today, the clearest sign of serious corporate commitment to health privacy rights is joining the Coalition for Patient Privacy and standing with consumers to build an ethical, legal HIT system—the only kind that will be trusted and succeed.